Jessica Ramos: “People commit crime out of necessity and out of mental…”

“We certainly keep splitting families apart. We certainly seem to exacerbate the reasons for which people created those small mistakes or big mistakes in the first place. People commit crime out of necessity and out of mental illness. And the minute that we decide to understand that, perhaps we can begin to design policy that is actually responsive to solving our societal problems.” (01:16–01:21)

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.